What I Read And Liked In 2019

I’m leaving it to the final hour to submit my list of the best books I read this year and I’m kind of glad I did as a couple of stunner crept in in the last week. It’s been a fantastic year for reading. I managed to muddle my way through 225 books. I discovered Cynan Jones and devoured almost all his books in a year. I made my way slowly (very slowly), through all the Harry Potter books and while I’m no HP convert, (No. 4’s the only one I liked and don’t get me started on lac of editing in the final 3), I am now the world’s best auntie, able to converse about all things Quidditch with some level of proficiency. I did my best to read more works in translation and enjoyed 25 books by authors I might not otherwise have read. It was also a bumper year for great non-fiction and some fantastic short story collections. I’ve listed my favourite reads below in the hope there might be something here you might enjoy. You’ll notice they weren’t all published in 2019 but I’m a great believer in reading intuitively and if it’s a good book this year, it’ll still be a great book when I eventually get round to reading it. Here’s to great books in 2020 and supporting your local bookshops and libraries. A huge thanks to David at No Alibis and Bob at Gutter, who’ve kept me well-supplied and to all the various publishers and agents who’ve sent me wonderful new proofs to read.

Here are my reading statistics for 2019:

121 Novels
31 Short Story Collections
40 Works of Non-Fiction
32 Poetry Collections
25 Works in Translation
48 Books by Irish Writers
129 Books by Women

Novel of the Year (Sorry couldn’t pick between these two):

Tommy Orange – There There & Valeria Luiselli – Lost Children Archive

Short Story Collection of the Year:

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Daisy Johnson – Fen

Poetry Collection of the Year (also sorry, couldn’t pick):

Ilya Kaminsky – Deaf Republic & Stephen Sexton – If All the World and Love Were Young

Translated Work of the Year:

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Olga Tokarczuk – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Non-Fiction Book of the Year:

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Ian Maleney – Minor Monuments

Irish Book of the Year:

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Sue Rainsford – Follow Me To Ground

Forty (One) Other Books Which Made My Year (in no particular order)

Richard Brautigan – Trout Fishing in America
Sohaila Abdulali – What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape
Curtis Sittenfeld – You Think It, I’ll Say It
John Yorke – Into the Woods
Kerry Hudson – Lowborn
Will Eaves – The Absent Therapist
Samanta Schweblin – Mouthful of Birds
Max Porter – Lanny
Cynan Jones – The Dig
Ronan Hession – Leonard and Hungry Paul














Sarah Moss – Bodies of Light
Megan Hunter – The End We Start From
Kevin Barry – Night Boat to Tangiers
Dawn Watson – The Stack of Owls is Getting Higher
Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Conor Cleary – Priced Out
Sophie Mackintosh – The Water Cure
Lara Williams – Supper Club
Robbie Arnott – Flames
Sinead Gleeson – Constellations














Karen Russell – Orange World
Fiona McFarlane – The Night Guest
Michel Faber – The Crimson Petal and the White
Shahriar Mandanipour – Censoring an Iranian Love Story
Stuart Parker – Hopdance
Lila Savage – Say Say Say
Yoko Ohara – The Memory Police
Megan Phelps- Roper – Unfollow
Caleb Klaces – Fatherhood
Lavinia Greenlaw – The Built Moment















Otessa Moshfegh – My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ramona Ausubel – Awayland
Stephen King – Salem’s Lot
Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad
Steven Sherril – The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
Emily Ruskovich – Idaho
Andrew Michael Hurley – Starve Acre
Elizabeth Strout – Olive, Again
Jacqueline Harpman – I Who Have Never Known Men
Andre Aciman – Call Me By Your Name
Meena Kandasamy – Exquisite Cadavers